John Hudson looks at a new book which reveals what was happening in Bristol's port in Tudor times.

Two academics from Bristol University have just produced a learned tome which, at £65, would not tempt many of us to part with our money.

But in examining the port of Bristol’s customs accounts for 11 years spread out between 1503 and 1601, they have produced a fascinating snapshot not simply of shipping trends, but of how we in the West lived in a century dominated by the Tudor monarchs Henry VIII and Elizabeth I.

The book, which concentrates on Irish and continental trade, is the work of Evan Jones, a senior lecturer in early modern economic history at the university, and Susan Flavin, who is working on a doctorate on consumption patterns in 16th-century Ireland.

The records for 1504 tell of a brisk demand for wine from Bordeaux, a port still on Bristol’s radar as a twin city, while Andalusia, the Algarve and Lisbon were among other sources of exotic goods and spices.

In April 1504, for instance, the Trinite of Barnstaple sailed in from the Portuguese capital with a cargo of wine, olive oil, wax, pepper, sugar, black cork, cloves, nutmeg, ginger and cinnamon, while a typical cargo in the opposite direction would consist of cloth and hides.

Huge amounts of cloth and skins flowed in from across the Irish Sea. In July 1542, the George of Waterford docked with a cargo of mantles – shawls worn in rural Ireland and the Scottish Highlands – along with linen, check cloth and the skins of everything from sheep and fox to otter, kid and marten.

The Tudors loved their fur, as portraits of monarchs and statesmen tell us, but clearly not everybody could run to regal ermine.

Heading westward, fancy goods and luxuries accounted for much of Bristol’s export trade to Ireland.

The Kateryn of Waterford set sail home in July 1542 with a cargo that took in table knives, playing cards, liquorice, glasses, thimbles, needles and girdles.

Various kinds of haberdashery were frequently to be found heading westward.

It seems like a timewarp to find “Manchester Cotton Cloth” featuring in cargo lists from the mid-16th century – but it’s a reminder that the Lancashire textile industry, based on the region’s soft water, was thriving more than two centuries before the Industrial Revolution.

And while herring and hake were the most common fish to come in from the Irish Sea, other species landed at the port of Bristol included cod, haddock, eels, gurnard, mackerel, salmon, sprat, sardines and sturgeon.

There is many a supermarket fish counter today that would be happy to offer that kind of variety.

Bristol merchants operating in the 16th century whose family names still resonate in the area included the Codringtons, Colstons, Cottrells and Whitsons.

And there is something wonderfully evocative about some of the ships’ names, from ports both far and near.

Imagine walking along the teeming waterfront and encountering the Corpus Sancta of Bilbao, the Dragon of Milford Haven, the Good Lucke of Bristol, the Guifte of God of Barnstaple, the Peter and Pawle of Lübeck,,,

That said, there were also large numbers of craft carrying simple christian names, male more often than female. A quite bewildering array of Marys sailed into Bristol, literally scores of them from everywhere from Minehead to Marennes. Anns, Katherines and Margarets also put in multiple appearances, and there were smatterings of Barbaras, Janes, Jenets and Pearles.

Men’s names were even more frequently found.

There was scarcely a Severnside port, from Mumbles to Minsterworth, that did not boast a Christopher, and Clement, George, James, Nicholas and Peter were also widely used.

So was Jesus – and in Elmore as well as Errenteria, Pembroke as well as Pasajes de San Juan.

Surprisingly, not many Henrys and Elizabeths put into Bristol in Tudor times.

Perhaps naming your craft after the reigning monarch was somehow infra-dig.

Goods flowed into Bristol from the Baltic ports of Gdansk and Lübeck, the Channel ports, the French Atlantic seaboard, Northern and Southern Spain, the length of Portugal, Marseilles and Toulon in the South of France and Genoa and Livorno in Italy.

While Waterford was Bristol’s predominant point of contact with Ireland, ships from a dozen other ports put into the city, from Glendore and Kinsale in the south to Drogheda and Dundalk up north.

Little craft from both sides of the Bristol Channel were also constant visitors, while there was hardly a village or hamlet on the Severn up to Gloucester that did not trade with Bristol.

Even boats in from down the Avon at Shirehampton were classed as visitors to Bristol, and sailors from Tidenham and Purton, Framilode, Longney and Elmore would also take their chance among the big boys in one of the great seaports of England.

On March 29, 1543, the Clement of Framilode sailed up the Avon with 30 tons of iron, on the same day that the Saynt John of Erritrea was outward bound to the Bay of Biscay laden with woollen cloth, Bristol frieze cloth, Welsh cloth, flannel and calf skins.

It’s tempting to think that their respective masters, John Wade and Jean de Garamen, tipped their caps to one another in the Avon Gorge.

And whether they did or not, their presence in the same waters on the same day hints at the remarkable melting pot that was the port of Bristol 500 years ago.

Must parl Bristol’s trade with Ireland and the Continent 1503-1601 is edited by Susan Flavin and Evan T.Jones.

It is published by Four Courts Press for the Bristol Record Society and costs £65.00